Hello roadman, we're winding our way towards the Pyrenees
Hello roadman, we're winding our way towards the Pyrenees. We are on stage number 6 at the Tour de France. This is the roadman podcast. Let's cue that intro. The big question is this. How do we use cycling as a tool to improve our health, our happiness and our long chances? That is the question and this podcast will give you the answers. My name is Anthony Welch and welcome to the roadman podcast. Roadman, welcome back to the Roadman podcast. We are winding our way towards the Pyrenees. Today we had stage number 6 from La Teal to Mont-O'Gal, 191km with the first category called the Lucette, coming very close to the finish. It was a stage which promised a lot, but in the end it was probably, let's call it Spade a Spade a Disappoint. It really really did the commentators on Europe sport were doing our best to try and paint it into something that it wasn't it disappointed it disappointed there's a couple of talking points from today that I want to jump into but before I do that just let me mention to you patreon.com patreon.com forward slash Anthony underscore Walsh guys patreon is how we fund this podcast I haven't to this point taken in any independent sponsors for the podcast, it's entirely funded through the generosity of the listeners. It's a little bit of a co-op type vibe. I'd like to continue with this for as long as feasibly possible. So the life and the health of the podcast is very much dependent on your generosity at the moment. I've decided to go daily with Tour de France podcast because it seemed to be what the listeners were calling I know for a lot of DMs, around a couple of polls. But unfortunately that places additional financial pressure on the podcast and basically on the leak and cash, out me pockets keeping the podcast going. So patreon.com forward slash Anthony underscore watch is how you fund the podcast. Every month I give money or I used to give money to Sky Sports, I used to give money to Virgin. I stopped doing all that and now what I do is I fund patreon who I enjoy listening to. I spend a lot of time out on the bike listening to podcasts. And I figured, why should I get this content for free? Somebody is working to deliver this content. There's a research cost, there's a time cost for creating the podcast, there's an upload cost, a hosting cost. So I wanna be able to contribute to that. And that's when I started funding Patreon's, and then when I started my own podcast, I thought it's such a beautiful way to do it that the listeners actually get to fund the podcast. And we're all more a part of this roadman journey. So there you go, patreon.com. Today's stage was dominated by a breakaway, and it was a breakaway of powerhouses at the business end of it when it started splitting. We had pearls from EF education. We had our very own friend of the show, Nicholas Roach. And we had Luchenko from Astana. I'm always just skeptical of any Astana lad. I don't know why, I just am. Well, I do know why, it's Vinacuroff. We also had Greg Van Avermert, and we had Jesus Harara. Commentators might pronounce him Jesus. I call him Jesus, Jesus. Before we got going on all that, we had Patrick LaFevre talking about the bottle incident yesterday. Alifeliep talking illegal feed. He took it with about 18 kilometers to go. 20 kilometers to go was the cut off for feeding. That rule exists for safety. They don't want people feeding that unsafe places. Now, a quick step. Swann Yor said he chose there because of COVID and crowding. and he didn't want to be near crowds of people who were feeding, and it wasn't safe anywhere else. So he felt that he might get away with it, he didn't get away with it, Patrick LeFavor, the controversial we'll call him, Quickstep, Director and Team Owner. He just basically said it's their own absolute stupidity, and it's a really tragic way, stupid way to lose the Yellow Jersey and the Tour de France. So I don't imagine that that Swanure is going to be on Patrick LeFavor's Christmas scarred list. I would say he's kind of hanging his head pretty low around the dinner table at the moment. We had Peter Saigon as well saying basically he's not a panicking, that he's been here before. He's won the Granger as he's seven out of the last eight years and the year he didn't win it was the year he got expelled wrongfully in my opinion. For that sprint finish with Cavendish where he still Cavendish allegedly into the barriers. He said it's only you were only six stages in and it's a long, long tour of France and were just about to hit the mountains.
He lost more points today incidentally in the Green Jersey contest as…
He lost more points today incidentally in the Green Jersey contest as Ben talked it intermediate. The main breakup today probably should have got more time but the presence of Greg Van Eivremert. So you can thank me for when you're at the dinner table later on and you start going Greg Van Evermert was at 3 minutes, 30 seconds and that's why the Peloton didn't really give them much rope. All day they got a maximum later up to about 5 minutes and they started reeling them in. There's only 13 seconds separating the top 15 on GC. There's an interesting staff for you. Just came across that one today. I can't remember the Tour de France. It's been so close, 6 stages in. We are moving towards the period on these, so that 15 seconds or 13 seconds is going to become more like 13 minutes, I would say. Also has anyone been watching on TV like up the climbs? There's a normal amount of fans. If you said to me, this is a normal Tour de France, I would fully believe you. Finish line is pretty bad. Like bearing the eyes off for Euro Sport was commenting on, he felt sorry for Lachenko winning the stages Tour de France. Don't fail sorry for the Cenco. Fail for yourself mate, you'd win it stage. Fail sorry for the Cenco. Man's just won a stage at the Tour de France giving him your pity. Bernie was saying he fell sorry for the Cenco because there's no fans and now I'm sure it was muted but very very very very much doubt that it took any other showing off for the Cenco and Astana. But Berniois I'll say I think it is. The fans on the hills, they're normal to me. There's a normal amount of fans there, they're deep, they're flares, they're drinking. It just seems a normal Tour de France. I speculated to start at the podcast that I just could not see how you could stop people, taxpayers, citizens staying off open roads. There's no lockdown, it's not not like a military sort of core few imposed. So I just don't see how they're gonna enforce that. And I think as we get to the Pyrenees, we're gonna see huge crowds again. Phonius the Tack of the day had to be from Fabio Arru. The man who, it's like his brain and his legs aren't linked up. Not really sure whatever does be going on with him. Like did the director tell him to attack on the call of the lasset. He attacked the group of main GC rivals anyone hasn't seen this and he got about maximum lead of 45 seconds, barely mind the brakes three and a half minutes away so we got nowhere near them. Got a maximum lead of about 45 seconds and that just got whittled down, he had about 15 seconds left over the top and then he got caught under the scent. The most pointless waste of energy I've ever seen. If this had been a stage in area for a Pajakar attack maybe we could have seen that but the exact opposite happen. Podgekhar actually punched her and he could have done with Aireu there to go in and back ship and back as one of his chief climbing the mistakes but Aireu was nowhere to be seen because he was still up the road. It was just bizarre and it just, it's good to see Aireu back moving relatively well because he had that load infection for the last couple of years which kind of hampered his progress in Saiklam but it's just a man just doesn't think like is it a director saying that to get some air time for the jersey but honestly It was the stupidest shit I've seen in a long time from them. Inios took control today, they hit the front of the peloton and they looked pretty good. That has to be a bit of a morale boost because we've talked about how the change in the regard has happened and it's Yumbovisma at the moment. And actually that was echoed by Pino on the finish line, I heard him being interviewed. And Pino was saying, yep, no, inios are not the team. It's Yumbovisma at the new powerhouse, they're the new controlling force in the peloton. But any of us had to take a little bit of confidence back from the fact that they were able to get on the front of the bunch, they were able to ride tempo and control the race. Look, I promised yesterday it was going to be fireworks and there wasn't fireworks. There was very little to say about today's stage. Everyone yapped on about yesterday's stage, the first grand tour stage in 12 years without a breakaway being a born stage.
Didn't actually find yesterday that born mainly because I didn't…
I didn't actually find yesterday that born mainly because I didn't watch the middle of the stage. I had it on mute and I was walking away. loads of stuff happened like the drama with a la Felipe Benas, Saigon. Today was just a little bit of a nut on the stage because Le Cenco had the stage win in the bag. Then with a bunch of sprint I suppose for where a la Felipe gave a little bit of a fuck you to the jury yesterday and it was a very little fuck you now because you got one second back by winning the bunch of sprint. It was a show of strength or was a waste of energy, I don't know whatever way you want to flip it on to it. I think it was watered down. In the end we had Lichenko on the stage we had Jesus Harada coming in second we Greg Van Avermert Greg Van Avermert just no sense of charity about the man he had Paulus from EF Education in the break it was the man's birthday and he wouldn't even give him a spot on the podium tough tough tough world we're living in GC is unchanged but Adam Yates top of GC I'd love to get Matt White actually on I might try and reach out to Matt White it's hard to get the boys that are on the like Chris Hill-Yenson will be brilliant to chat at the moment because he's obviously on the front of the bunch in the Tour de France defending yellow. But I know Chris spoke in the podcast he had with us about how he's a little bit of a reputation for being a messer on Grand Tours. And you know that's something he's been working on that he seemed to waste a lot of energy and him and my aim and clash the base back a couple of Grand Tours ago just because you was just messing and called the Joker. So I don't know, maybe it just doesn't see it when I'm coming on the podcast interviews in the middle of the store. I'll reach out to the boys and see if it's possible. But look, I'm not going to promise that. And with most lately, I'd say get anyone that's doing the store after the store. Rog Litch is second, three seconds, and Poggakar, however you pronounce his name. Poggakar, Poggakar, never know. He's at seven seconds. Tomorrow we have stage 7, 168km from Milleau to Laver, two category tree climbs and one category four climb. It's a sprint day, make no mistake, Benus, I talked about I don't think you should be on for the intermediates. I went for it again today, when you're going for the intermediates you take your eye off the stagewinds, you're worried about getting, You don't go through the gap because you're worried about coming down in the crash and losing all the points when you're going for a stage When you need to be a killer I prefer to be Bennett winning stages doesn't look like he's gonna go for it I haven't totally tallied up points and the low he would have been getting over climbs as we get to the pier in these It just seems to me like it's an almost an impossible task when Sagin can climb so well And Bennett can't climb that well so I don't know, time will tell, time will tell, roadman. We march onwards towards the Pyrenees, stage 7 of the roadman podcast is tomorrow and in the meantime I would ask you to pop across the Patreon, your generosity is not only needed, it is very much welcomed. Plus it's really vindication for me to the podcast is going the right direction that you're enjoying the content. You know I can see it from the download numbers which by the way August boom we smashed our download figures. We're up about 20% from the previous month, which was up about 30% from the previous month. So thanks very much for everyone in the chair and the podcast around because that's really the way podcasts get listened to. I know a buddy of mine told me to listen to the Path Dively podcast. He actually had to tell me about five times before I actually listened and went and listened to the Path Dively podcast. So if you've told someone about the Royal Man podcast, keep chasing them. Have you listened? What did you think? Have you listened? That's the way we get it grown. Guys, thanks very much. We'll be back tomorrow for stage 7 at the Tour de France. Look after yourselves, roadmen.